


Big Trouble in Little Packages

by Ice_Queen_96



Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Because I'm ADHD and don't have enough to do already, New Spin on Old Prompt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-29
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2018-07-27 10:40:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 17,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7614841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ice_Queen_96/pseuds/Ice_Queen_96
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Which is worse, Wheeljack's inventions or Starscream's Weapons of Doom</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

They stood outside the ICU room, staring at the form within. The occupant was currently in stasis but only after Ratchet performed several miracles in keeping the spark stable enough to reach that state safely. However, the body was severely damaged and was currently being supported by all means of tubes, wires, and lines. The Decepticons raided a nearby power plant earlier in the day and attempted to take out Optimus Prime with their newest “Weapon of Doom” (copyright pending). They nearly succeeded except at the last minute, he was shoved outside of the blast range. The hero wasn’t so lucky. 

“Fuel pump – damaged. Air vents – damaged and not functioning on their own. Neural relays – fried. Multiple joints destroyed, casings fused. I think the list would be shorter if I would tell you what WASN’T damaged.

Ratchet sat down the data pad with the most recent vitals and findings with a sigh. “I don’t have all of the supplies here to fix this. We’re going to need to see what materials are available in storage and what's available here on Earth for the parts Jack is going to have to fabricate. We’re talking this could take months!”

“So that leaves us with the two options you presented to us earlier,” Optimus said quietly. He gripped the windowsill and looked on with sadness, knowing that it should have been him in that bed.

“Yeah, we either leave him in stasis on full support until we can obtain everything we need to fully repair him."

“Or we go with Plan B which also isn’t ideal,” Ironhide cut in.

“In all fairness,” Prowl said quietly, “this decision is not for us to make.”

Four sets of optics turned towards the other occupant in the room.

“Sunny???”

“Yeah Ratch,” he replied as he rubbed his hand over his spark chamber. He could tell his twin was there in the bond but was quiet. Sideswipe was very rarely quiet, even when in recharge. 

“What do you want to do?”

He stared at his twin through the window, trying to decide what he would want Sideswipe to do if their positions were reversed. Would he want to be maintained in stasis, with machines venting and circulating energon for him or would he risk the alternative? He didn’t turn around as he made his decision.

“Do it.”


	2. Through the Looking Glass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So what decision did Sunny have to make

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own, blah blah blah. Legal stuff

Sideswipe slowly came online. As his senses slowly booted up, he could hear different sounds around him. Sounded like the Med Bay but his optics were slow to come on. 

“Yep, same old ugly orange ceiling” he muttered to himself. “Sunny should really paint a mural up there.”

“No.”

He turned his head towards the voice and soon his optics were able to focus on his twin.

“Hi Sunny,” he smiled weakly. “How long have I been out?”

“About one week,” Sunstreaker replied. “Ratchet only just started swearing at you a few days ago.”

Sideswipe chuckled at that last comment. When Ratchet was quiet, that’s when you worried. When he was swearing was when you knew the injured bot was going to be ok. He went to sit up but his brother gently pushed him back down.

“No getting up, Hatchet’s orders,” he said as he stood up. “I’m going to go let him know you’re awake.”

Sideswipe just nodded his head as he continued to look around. He raised one of his arms off the bed and stared at the IV line feeding nutrients into his body. He squinted his eyes as it didn’t look right. Then again, he had been out for almost a week, probably still calibrating.

“So how are you feeling pit spawn?” Ratchet asked as he came over. He recorded the most recent vitals and then flashed his scanner up and down Sideswipe’s body.

“OK I guess.”

“Do you remember what happened?”

“Starscream’s latest Weapon of Doom,” Sideswipe replied. “Was aiming at Prime. Is he ok? What about the ray gun?"

“Prime is fine and Bluestreak used it for target practice,” Sunstreaker replied. 

Ratchet turned the scanner off before pulling a syringe from subspace. “Processor seems to be ok, a little slow but that’s normal. I don’t see why you can’t go back to your room to recharge. Going to give you a light sedative injection so you will actually do as your told and sleep. When this bag of energon is empty, comm me Sunstreaker and I’ll come down to unhook the IV and do a final check.”

Sunstreaker nodded his head in acknowledgement while Ratchet injected the contents of the syringe into the IV line. Before the contents had been fully injected, Sideswipe’s optics began to shutter close.

“Alright hero, your bunk awaits.”

Sunstreaker bent over to pick his brother up. Before recharge kicked in, Sideswipe thought it was funny how easily Sunstreaker picked him up. Definitely going to need some armor replaced if he was this light.

\----------------------------------

The next time Sideswipe woke up, he booted up faster that he had in the Med Bay. He noticed he was in the quarters he shared with his twin but Sunny must have placed him on his bunk since it was the lower one. He wasn’t sure why Sunny had done that, it’s not like he didn’t have rails on his upper bunk. Besides, he was Sideswipe, he didn’t roll off his bunk. Most of the time. 

“Sunny?” he called out as he sat up to rub his optics. He noticed the IV line was gone so Ratchet must have been down already and completed his scans. He took a look around the room. The TV was on some nature channel with the volume on low and the lights over the chair where Sunstreaker liked to sit and draw was on. Knowing his brother hated to leave things on, he figured Sunny must have just stepped out of the room for a moment. He walked over to the table and grabbed the remote, intending to take control of the TV while his brother was gone. Flopping down on the couch, he tried to situate himself into prime viewing position. However, as he looked down at his peds, he noticed a nice large gap between the bottom of his peds and the couch cushion.

“That’s not right,” he muttered to himself. Usually he laid his head on one arm rest and dangled his feet over the other. 

He sat up quickly and took a look around the room. The perspective was “off”, something wasn’t right. He jumped off the couch and stood there frozen. Normally he could see over the back of the sofa easily, this time, it almost seemed eye level. Vents increasing, he spun around, trying to think of what to do next.

The mirror! Sunny had a full length mirror that he used when he would wax and polish himself. He ran over to the supply closet door and flung it open, optics widening in horror.

\-----------------------------------

Ratchet had told Sunstreaker that he might want to have some energon around for when Sideswipe woke up. Reaching a good stopping point in his latest drawing, he walked down to the Rec Room to get a couple of cubes to take back with him. He was getting ready to enter the door code when he heard running behind him.

“Hey Sunny, Prowl said that Ratchet released Sides from Med Bay, how is he doing, how is he taking things?” Bluestreak said as he came running up the hall.

The twins had been friends with the Praxian sharpshooter since they were all younglings and both Prowl and Bluestreak had been pulled from the rubble of Praxus. While he could talk a mile a minute, the twins could easily understand him and didn’t have any issues with his fast talking. They just knew it was his way to cope. 

“Not sure Blue,” Sunstreaker replied. “Hasn’t really been awake long enough to process much more than he got hit with the ray gun during the last battle."

Suddenly, a loud screech came from the twins’ room, startling both hall occupants and causing Sunstreaker to drop the cubes. Rapidly punching in the access codes, both ran into the room the minute the door slid open to find Sideswipe staring at himself in his brother’s mirror.

“Sides?” Sunstreaker reached out towards his brother, moving slowly to try to keep from scaring him more.

Sideswipe turned towards his brother and his friend, optics open wide. 

“Sunny, I’m a mini-bot!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've seen this prompt before and saw some good things done with it. Thought I would give it a try as well. Now working on two stories, I must be losing my mind!


	3. I'm a WHAT!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> But, but, the piledrivers!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since we're on Earth for this one, going to use our units of measurement (time, miles, etc). Also have a flashback in this chapter, its italicized. Also made a couple of changes to the prologue. Decided that we're closer in time to when they woke up instead of being in contact with Cybertron. Nothing major, just enough to give Ratchet a bigger headache *Ducks Wrench*
> 
> Also don't own the Love Boat. If I did, I'd be rich on residuals!

All in all, Sunstreaker couldn’t say it was a bad day. It was an interesting day, one that he hoped he didn’t experience again in his lifetime, but it could have been worse, oh so much worse.

********************

_Ratchet was just cleaning up for the day when the Med Bay doors opened and what sounded like a thundering herd of buffalo came stampeding in. He exited his office to find one anxious Praxian and one irritated twin pacing the Med Bay._

_“Ratchet!”_

_“I’m right here you idiot, what seems to be the problem.”_

_He’s having a panic attack or something!”_

_Ratchet walked up to the yellow twin to find him cradling his brother whose eyes were wide open in shock and muttering about being turned into mini-bot. “Put him on the berth over there, I’ll be right back with something to calm him down.” He returned quickly with a light sedative and after a few minutes, Sideswipe began to calm down._

_“Sides, how are you feeling now?” Ratchet asked as he checked his vitals once more._

_“I’m a mini-bot!”_

_“What?!”_

_“I’M A MINI-BOT!”_

_Ratchet smacked the back of his helm “You’re not a mini-bot you red idiot. We had to transplant your spark into a youngling frame that Jack modified due to the damage your adult frame took.”_

_“I’m not a mini-bot?”_

_This time Sunstreaker smacked the back of his. “No you moron, I can be mean but I’m not that cruel.”_

_“I’m not a mini-bot?”_

_“Yeah, I think you two might want to have this conversation with him later,” Bluestreak laughed. “I think he’s just a little too fixated on the mini-bot thing for anything else to make sense.”_

********************

So here he was a couple of hours later, Sideswipe was finally calm enough to listen to reason and he had a helm ache over the whole thing.

“So where’s my body?” he asked. “You didn’t scrap it to make this one did you!”

“No Sideswipe,” Ratchet signed, “your body has been placed in storage until Jack and I can fabricate the parts we need to repair it. Remember, we’re working with unfamiliar materials here and we didn’t have many options at that moment.”

“But why a youngling?”

“Remember, the Ark was expected to be gone for vorns. Before leaving, the science and medical crews on Cybertron stocked it with anything we may possibly need during our travels. Turns out they figured a few youngling frames counted as a potential need. Not sure what they were thinking, this is a battle and exploration ship, not the Love Boat,” Ratchet grumped.

“I had to choose to either keep you in stasis until they could repair you or ‘this’”, Sunstreaker said as he gestured towards his twin’s new body.

“So I had Jackie get one of the youngling frames that had survived the crash and we made a few modifications to it so it would accept your spark. And no, it won’t blow up,” Ratchet finished.

“So what do I do now?” Sideswipe asked. “I don’t see how I can do Jet Judo like this.”

“Well, for now, Prowl has you on leave authorized by me,” Ratchet replied. 

“Alright! Free mech! Come on Sunny, let’s go for a drive!”

“Um Sides.”

“Yeah Sunny.”

“Remember, younglings don’t have the ability to transform. Or activate weaponry.”

“WHAT!”

Both Ratchet and Sunstreaker just shook their heads

“But, but, my beautiful Lamborghini form. My pile drivers. Where are my pile drivers!”

Once more, Ratchet smacked him across the back of his helm. “They’re safe with your other body. Youngling frames don’t have the mechanics or structural abilities to handle upgrades like that. Especially the upgrades you have.”

“What about my rocket launcher, can I have that?”

“NO SIDESWIPE!”

Sitting there watching his brother argue with Ratchet about weapons and alt mode was definitely giving him a helm ache. Sunstreaker was starting to regret this decision, he should have had Sideswipe turned into a mini-bot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still working on my other story as well, got the next chapter part way done but nice to have a little distraction as well.


	4. Grounded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The officers come up with a plan while they're a bot down

Chapter 3

So after losing the battle to have Ratchet at least give him his jet pack, Sideswipe followed his brother out of Med-Bay. He soon began to get worried when he noticed that they weren’t heading back to their quarters.

“Uh Sunny where are we going?”

“Rec Room, just because you’ve been hooked up to Energon all day doesn’t mean the rest of us have.”

“WHAT! I can’t go in there like this!”

Sunstreaker reached out and grabbed his quickly retreating twin by his scruff bar, “You’ve been out for a week moron, everyone already knows you’re like this.”

Sideswipe huffed in displeasure but didn’t say anything as his brother carried him towards the Rec Room like one carries a dirty rag.

Walking into the room, Sunstreaker ignored all of the stares as he marched over to their usual corner table. Pulling out a chair, Sunstreaker dropped his brother onto his before turning towards the dispensers. “Stay here and stay out of trouble.”

Sideswipe huffed but didn’t say anything. Instead, he responded by giving his twin a one fingered salute that he had learned from Spike. 

“Now Sides, I don’t think that is appropriate younglin’ behavior,” Jazz laughed as he took a sip from his cube. “You betteh watch it or else ole Prowler here will have to put you in time out.”

“Prowl,” Sideswipe whined.

“Yes Sideswipe.”

“Jazz is picking on me.”

“Jazz, stop picking on the youngling. 

Sideswipe groaned and slid further down into his chair while Sunstreaker returned to the table with his ration. 

‘Nothin’ for the kiddo here?” Jazz asked

“Not hungry”, Sideswipe sulked, as he stared at the table of laughing mini-bots. 

Jazz and Prowl both glanced at Sunstreaker. “Ratchet’s had him hooked up most of the day,” he said as he took a sip from his cube. 

The trio turned back to their conversation, a few times either Jazz or Sunstreaker grabbing Sideswipe by his scruff bar to keep him from starting a fight with the minis. Soon, all three received a ping from Optimus requesting a meeting. 

“Come on short stuff, got a meeting with Optimus.” Sunstreaker pulled Sideswipe’s chair away from the table while Jazz tossed all of their empty cubes into the recycler. 

“Take it I don’t have a comm link either,” Sideswipe grumped. “And I’m not short!”

He jumped to the floor and stood to his full height, which was just about to his brother’s pelvic girdle. “Oh, shut up!” and followed the party out the door.

*******************

“So, while Sideswipe is in this condition, we will need to take precautions.” 

Optimus leaned back in his chair while Ratchet gave his report, looking over at the sulking youngling frontliner. While it had been a long time since anyone had seen a youngling, this was not exactly the way he wished to see one. The Decepticons had been more aggressive in their raids recently and losing Sideswipe was a big blow to their offensive capabilities. 

“What do you suggest?” Optimus asked once Ratchet had finished.  
“How about fix me?” 

Seven sets of optics turned to look at the little frontliner. He tried to be intimidating but his scowl did not have the desired effect.

“Ah man, he’s just too damn cute!” Jazz laughed while Sunstreaker grabbed the scruff bar (again) to prevent Sideswipe from going across the conference table and doing something he would regret later (again). 

“Sorry Sides.” Wheeljack spoke up as he referenced a data pad. “A lot of the materials we needed in order to repair you were damaged or destroyed when we crashed. I’ve been able to salvage some parts but the rest I’m either going to have to refabricate from our damaged stores or try to find compatible metals here on Earth. It’s going to take a while I’m afraid.”

“So what are we to do in the meantime?” Prowl asked.

All faces turned back towards Ratchet. “Well, considering he’s in a youngling frame, he has no weapons or comm abilities. Which means he’s vulnerable. Youngling also don’t have subspaces so it’s not like he could even carry a weapon at this time. I’m afraid he’s relegated to the Ark for the time being.”

“WHAT!”

“I’m sorry Sides but it’s too risky to let you go far from the Ark at this time.” Ratchet got out of his chair to go over to Sideswipe to try and offer some comfort but before he could make it halfway around the table, he jumped from his chair and ran out of the room.

“I’ll go talk to him,” Sunstreaker said as he started to walk out, hand over his spark due to the emotions his brother was pushing through their bond. “I think I might be the only one he will listen to right now. What’s coming through is pretty emotional, especially for him.”

Once Sunstreaker had left the room, Optimus turned back to his officers.

“Ironhide, I want you and Prowl to work together to increase the guard presence until Sideswipe is back to normal. Utilize Red Alert as needed for security changes. Jazz, we may need to increase Ops recons to keep a better tab on Decepticon actions while we’re vulnerable. Ratchet, Wheeljack, whatever supplies you need, please let me know right away.”

“What about Sides?” Jazz asked. “You know how quickly that lil hellion gets bored. And when he gets bored, he causes trouble. I don’t know about the rest of ya but I really don’t want to wake up covered in pink paint and glitter.”

“I will work on trying to find ways to keep him occupied,” Prowl replied. “I will also see about having Bluestreak do more rotations in the Ark rather than on patrol. He may be able to keep him entertained.”  
Optimus ended the meeting with a wave of his hand. As the rest of his officers left the room, he put his hands to his helm. This was going to be one massive headache before it was all said and done.


	5. Calm before the Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble looms on the horizon....

Chapter 4

It had been about a week since Sideswipe woke up in a youngling frame and he was slowly starting to go insane. He had played all of the video games they already had on the Ark and a few that Spike brought by as well. He spent a lot of time online but even that got old after a while. Prowl did what he could to have Sunstreaker or Bluestreak on duty there at the Ark as much as possible and Sideswipe would often hang out with them in the comms suite or the monitor room. However, today, both were needed for patrols off site and Sideswipe was getting bored and a bored Sideswipe was not a good thing. 

He wandered through the Ark to see if he could find something to do. He had visited Wheeljack earlier in the day to see how repairs were going but unfortunately, there was little progress made due to limited access to raw materials. Eventually he made his way down to the training room where Ironhide was running some drills with some of the other Autobots. While his sessions would leave him worn out and begging for his berth, he did enjoy the rush a good fight brought on. However, in his current state, that was definitely not an option. 

“I take it you have been relegated to the observation room by Ironhide.”

Sideswipe turned around from the observation window to see Prowl standing in the doorway.

“Yeah, he won’t let me within fifty feet of the door,” he sighed. “I think Ratchet threatened to turn him into a kitchen appliance or something if he caught me in there and he has Red Alert monitoring the cameras to make sure I stay out.”

“Come with me, I have something you may be able to assist me with.”

Sideswipe was confused. What in the world would he be able to help Prowl with? Filing, probably filing. Oh joy. But he jumped off the seat and followed after the SIC as they headed towards tactics.

“With the increased patrols, we are struggling to go through some of the data that Jazz and Ops have collected, as well as, observations from recent fighting. I think you may be able to assist us with this task.”

“Um, no offense Prowl, but I’m a frontliner, I smash things.” Sideswipe fidgeted under the SIC’s gaze. “What makes you think I would be able to help with this?”

“You underestimate yourself.” Prowl sat down and pointed to a chair across from him. Once Sideswipe had seated himself, he continued. “You have always been very analytical from time you were a young. You perform well in strategy games against other tacticians and Autobots. I also have seen some of the planning that you engage in when planning a prank or other entertainment. While I have yet to be able to definitively show you are responsible for most of them, they do seem to have your signature.”

“Well, thanks, I think. Wait, this isn’t an attempt to get me to admit to the glitter cannons because that was so Smokey!”

Prowl cocked his optic ridge, as if he was going “uh-huh” but moved on. “You are very good at detecting patterns. That is what I would like your help with. Would you be interested?”

Sideswipe settled himself at the table and flipped the monitor in front of him on. “Sure, why not. Might be fun to see if I can show you up.”

They spent the next several hours watching feeds and going over data pulled by Ops from the Nemesis. Sure enough, Sideswipe started seeing some patterns that he would point out to Prowl who ran the more detailed analyses. Prowl would then feed the information back to Sideswipe, who then used it to see if he could find any matching information. 

“It looks like they are scouting certain areas, what do they call them here, geoheat?” Sideswipe asked as he reviewed some more footage.

“Geothermal,” Prowl corrected, “and it appears you may be on to something. I will have Trailbreaker continue this analysis when he comes on duty. From Wheeljack’s experiments, we know that geothermal heat is a good source of energy. The Decepticons may be attempting to tap into this force to increase their Energon supplies.”

They finished up a few more data packs before calling it a day. Getting a pulse from his twin over their bond, Sideswipe took off towards the entryway to meet him as he came back from patrol.

“Hey Sunny, guess what!” Sideswipe yelled as he ran towards the entrance where his brother had stopped to transform. “Prowl had me working in tactics all afternoon and it wasn’t half bad!”  
“Glad to hear you had fun today,” Bluestreak said as he walked up to the brothers. 

“Oh, he probably was just using it as an excuse to get under Prowl’s plating,” Sunstreaker replied. He could feel through the bond how excited his twin was to have done something productive despite being stuck as a youngling. However, sometimes, the opportunity to goad him into an argument was too good to pass up.

“Did not! He asked me to come help!” Sideswipe ran out of the Ark and started to run circles around his brother, trying to keep out of his reach. “Said I was good at that analytical stuff. You’re just jealous because you had to patrol the trails today and you got all dirty!”

He got behind his brother and before Sunstreaker could turn to match him, Sideswipe had jumped up and started clinging to his back, eventually crawling high enough to lock his arms around his brother’s neck and wrap his legs around his waist. Bluestreak laughed as Sunstreaker spun in circles with his laughing brother clinging to his back.

“Stop Sunny! I’m going to puke!”

“You wouldn’t dare!” Sunstreaker grumbled but Sideswipe could tell his brother was having just as much fun as he was. “Anyways, how about we hit the Rec Room for some Energon. Don’t know about you or Mr. tactical genius here, but I’m famished.”

Bluestreak nodded his head in agreement and started to walk inside the Ark. Sunstreaker circled his brother’s legs with his arms, essentially giving him a piggy back ride to the Rec Room while Sideswipe gave him a full retelling of his day.

They didn’t notice something flying off in the distance.

************************

“Well, that explains the lack of “jet judo” during our recent skirmishes with the Autobots.” Megatron was watching the video that Laserbeak had taken while spying on the Autobots. The screen was current frozen during the mock battle between the two twins at the entrance to the Ark.

“Well, I for one am not going to complain,” Starscream replied. “I’ve rather enjoyed only having to deal with one pit-spawned twin attacking my trine rather than trying to keep an optic out for both.”

“It would also explain your recent successes during our raids.” Megatron turned towards his SIC and Air Commander. “We all know your track record when it comes to completing raids on your own.” Turning back towards the feed, he rested his helm on his hand and he stared at the screen for a moment or two. “Soundwave, was Laserbeak able to obtain any additional information on why that curses twin is in that form?”

“Sideswipe injured in recent battle. Ratchet, unable to repair adult form. Spark transferred to youngling frame.”

“Reaallllyyyy. Well, this could be beneficial to our cause. Not only are the Autobots one fighter short, this fighter is also quite vulnerable. Which leaves his twin vulnerable.”

“My Lord?” Starscream asked.

“I think it’s time we had a ‘guest’ on the Nemesis, don’t you think.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry updates took so long, been down with a cold and the brain doesn't process well when its full of snot :(


	6. Gone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Autobots are drawn into battle but what is the cost at home?

Sunstreaker had a rare day off, so he and his brother had spent most of the day in and around the Ark doing different things. Currently, they were holed up in the Rec Room taking on all comers in a video game tournament. 

“Aw man, I just about had you!” Sideswipe dropped the controller as the alarms went off with overhead announcements for all available personnel to report to the entrance due to Decepticon activity at a nearby power plant. 

“Catch ya later half-pint!” Jazz called out as he started to direct the other participants towards the entrance. Sunstreaker waited until the room had mostly cleared out before turning back to his brother, who was staring at him from the back of the couch.

“Be back soon, stay out of trouble,” he said as he bent over so their foreheads could touch.

“Be careful Sunny, don’t have me watching your back,” Sideswipe returned.

Sunstreaker smiled, calling back “always”, before running out of the room to meet up with the rest of the fighters. 

Sideswipe sighed and then turned around to turn the game console and vid screen off. He then decided to head up to the monitor and communications hub to watch what was going on and see who stayed behind. Generally, a small party was left behind when the Autobots got called out to maintain communications and to protect the Ark. Red Alert almost always stayed behind, holed up in the Security Center. He had to jump to hit the door entry pad to allow entry to the monitor room where he saw Tracks on the Monitors and Prowl overseeing the battlefield and relaying information to Optimus and the other officers to create their plan of attack.

“Sup” he said as he crawled into the chair next to Tracks so he could watch the cams on what was going on. Tracks just glanced in his direction and then sent another SkySpy out to give them a bigger picture while Prowl had plugged himself into Teletran 1 in order to be able to process all of the information coming in through comms, visuals, and SkySpy to determine what moves to make. Any other time, he would be trying to show off or goofing off but this time, he knew it was time to be serious and sat quietly in his seat to watch the battle.

**********************

The Autobots reached the Power Plant quickly and took up formation to stop the Decepticons from stealing any more energy. While the officers directed everyone to their positions, Ironhide walked up next to Optimus.

“I don’t like it Prime, I don’t see that troublesome trine anywhere,” he grumbled as he charged his cannons.

“Keep your eyes open Ironhide, I can’t see Megatron not utilizing them in some manner,” Prime replied as he readied his axe. “Red Alert, Prowl, what is the situation.

“Communications are secure Prime,” Red Alert reported.

“I have Tracks controlling two of the Teletran’s SkySpies at this time, the data feeds are coming in without difficulties,” Prowl responded. “Did everyone receive the basic plans that I transmitted?”

Each division affirmed the data packet had been received and was being distributed to the soldiers. Suddenly, Megatron fired a blast from his fusion cannon towards the Autobots and with a yell, ordered the Decepticons to attack.

**********************

Back in the Ark, Sideswipe sat quietly as he watched the fighting on the multiple screens in the monitor room. He could feel through the bond his twin’s rush at fighting and wished he could be there by his side helping out. Suddenly, the power cut out and the back-up lighting kicked on. All feeds from the battlefield were lost and comms went down. Tracks and Sideswipe looked at each other and then slowly around the room while Prowl kept trying to establish communications with the battlefield.

“PROWL! DISCONNECT!”

Red Alert’s yell went over the base announcement system but before he could act, an electrical surge came through Teletran and up the uplink cord and knocked Prowl back from the computer hub and half-way across the room.

“PROWL!”

“Red Alert, what is going on!”

Both Sideswipe and Tracks had lept from their chairs and ran over to Prowl’s side. Tracks slowly rolled him onto his side to take some of the pressure off of his doorwings and could see that one had been dislocated by the fall. His optics were flickering as if he was trying to reboot but not fully successful at doing so.

“Lock down the monitor room, I’m having to fight to maintain control of the security system!” 

“Red Alert, what is going on?” Tracks yelled. “Prowl is down!”

“There are Cons outside. Soundwave is fighting me for control of the security systems. Outer doors have been breached!”

“Damnit!” Tracks pulled his blaster from subspace. “Stay here, I’m going to go see if I can hold them off until reinforcements come.”

Tracks ran out of the monitor room and Sideswipe could hear the locks engage as the doors closed after him. He turned to Prowl and decided to try and drag him behind a small outcropping where they would be better protected should someone make it to the monitor room. All the while, he was sending pulses through the bond, hoping Sunny would be able to pick it up despite the fighting going on around him. Once situated, all he could do was wait.

********************

Meanwhile, on the battlefield, Sunstreaker was working with Bluestreak to take down as many of the Decepticons as possible. He suddenly received a pulse of fear from his brother that stunned him for a moment.

“You ok?” Bluestreak asked as he lined up another shot

“Something’s wrong with Sideswipe, I need to get back to the Ark now!”

Sunstreaker turned and yelled at Ironhide that he needed to go. Before he could transform, Ironhide grabbed his arm.

“Hold on there, we’re trying to figure out what’s happening. We’ve lost contact with Prowl and the Ark isn’t responding.”

“Even more reason to let me go and get back there!”

Jazz came running up yelling at Ironhide to let him go. “Prime’s ordered me, Mirage, and Sunny to head back to base and find out what’s going on.” Seeing Sunstreaker transform and take off in a cloud of dust, Jazz commed Mirage to hurry up. “That’s not good if Sunshine there is leaving battle before being given the order. We’ll comm as soon as we can.” With that, both Jazz and Mirage transformed and took off after Sunstreaker and hurried to catch up to the speeding Lamborghini. 

**********************

Back at the Ark, Sideswipe huddled with Prowl’s unconscious form in the monitor room. He had heard no communications from either Tracks or Red Alert for several minutes now and he wasn’t sure if it was because they were physically unable to do so or if Soundwave was now blocking the inner base systems. He could hear muffled blaster fire outside of the doors but was unsure where or how far away the fighting was. Suddenly it became quiet again. Oh how he wished Ratchet would have given him his pile drivers right now. He could hear footsteps outside the door. Fighting the urge to call out for Tracks, he hunkered himself down more in the shadows.

“Knock Knock. Would you like to buy some Girl Scout Cookies?”

Oh great. That voice belonged to Skywarp. He let out a quiet squeak as someone pounded on the door.

“What are you doing?” That was Thundercracker.

“Trying to get the door open.”

“And you think they’re going to open up just because you knocked?”

“Well, yeah, wouldn’t you?”

“You’re an idiot Skywarp, get out of the way.” Starscream, the whole stinking trine was here!

He could hear blaster fire against the door and hoped that it would hold until help could arrive. However, he could see a red circle forming on the door where the metal was starting to heat from the repeated fire. 

“Soundwave just commed, Ravage reports that a party of Autobots are about ten miles out. We need to hurry,” Starscream ordered.

“Please Sunny, please hurry.”

********************

Sunstreaker hard braked and transformed near the entrance of the Ark, his momentum sending him skidding forwards on his beds towards the ship. 

“SIDESWIPE!”

He ran inside, Jazz and Mirage close behind. There were blaster marks on the wall and equipment strewn in the hallway from where fighting had taken place.

“Tracks!” 

Mirage had come around the corner to find him unconscious with several blaster wounds.

“He’s alive, keep going, I’ll work on stabilizing him.”

Jazz grabbed Sunstreaker’s arm and they ran further into the Ark towards the monitor room. As they turned down the hall leading towards the command area, they could see residual smoke and a large hole blasted through the doors. Running inside they noticed monitors shot and furniture strewn everywhere. There was some movement from the corner and both Jazz and Sunstreaker pulled their blasters from subspace. 

“Sides, its ok, come out.” 

But it wasn’t Sideswipe. Prowl managed to pull himself out behind the outcropping and then passed out again. Jazz knelt by him to start triaging his injuries while Sunstreaker started to run towards them. However, he looked up at the far wall and stopped dead in his tracks.

“No! Sides!”

Dropping to his knees, all he could do was read the message left behind.

“YOUNGLINGS CAN’T JET JUDO”

Sideswipe was gone.


	7. The Heat is On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Autobots plan on how to get Sideswipe back

They were staggered throughout the conference room when Ratchet came walking in.

“How are they Ratchet?”

He turned towards Optimus as he flopped down in his chair. “They’ll live”. Prowl’s systems were jarred from the electrical shock. Thankfully there wasn’t any processor damage, just needs a good defrag and about 12 hours of rest. We were able to get the door wing reset but it will be sore for a few days. Tracks had a lot of energon loss from his wounds but thankfully they missed all of his vital parts. I’ve got him hooked up to some IVs but he’s starting to come around. Red Alert was just overworked from fighting off Soundwave in the Security systems. He’s resting in his quarters but didn’t see what happened in the monitor room.”

“What about Sides?” Sunstreaker asked quietly.

“I’m sorry Sunny, neither Prowl or Tracks are coherent enough at this time to really let us know what happened.”

“I should have been here.” He slumped down into his seat and laid his upper body on the table, arms encircling his head. “I never should have left him.”

“Are you getting anything from him?” Ironhide asked.

“Only that he’s scared.”

“Sorry to interrupt but we have a message from the Nemesis.”

The group looked up to see Trailbreaker on the vid screen.

“Patch him through Trailbreaker,” Optimus replied.

With a nod, Trailbreaker’s picture flashed out. There was a short burst of static on screen before the feed was patched through to Megatron sitting on his throne on the Nemesis. 

“Greetings Optimus Prime. I take it I have called at a poor time. It wouldn’t have anything to do with the battle earlier today. I was under the impression your fighters suffered only minor injuries before we removed ourselves from the battlefield.”

Optimus went to respond but was interrupted by a yellow flash darting up to the screen.

“Where’s my brother you son of a glitch!”

“Such manners Prime, I thought your soldiers were trained better than that. I never let….”

“Ahhhh, the little fragger bit me!”

“SUNNY!”

If Sunstreaker could have leapt through the screen, he would have at his brother’s scream. The feed panned out to show Megatron surrounded by his lead trine, with Skywarp gripping his hand and Starscream restraining his brother.

“As I was saying, my soldiers know better than to interrupt me while I’m speaking with someone.”

“Megaton, let him go, he’s just a youngling.”

“Just a youngling, bah. He’s a menace in a youngling body, that’s what he is. And right now, he’s mine.” Megatron walked over to where Sideswipe was squirming around, trying to break Starscream’s hold on him. “No Prime, he’s not just a youngling, he’s my, as the humans say, trump card. You will let my soldiers collect as much energon as needed so we can leave this wretched planet. In return, I will let your precious ‘youngling’ go.”

“But th’ amount of energon you want will damage this planet!” Ironhide scowled in return.

“That is true but you need to decide which is worth more, this planet or your precious twin.” Megaton grabbed onto Sideswipe’s left wrist and he stopped squirming as he looked up at the tyrant. “For I also know, what happens to one twin, affects them both.”

He gave a hard squeeze on the wrist, crushing the joint and causing Sideswipe to scream in pain. Sunstreaker grabbed his wrist and dropped to his knees but didn’t make a sound. Instead, he managed to look up at the vid screen before the feed cut and took some pleasure in Megatron stilling at the look on his face. The old gladiator coding that was instilled in him as a youngling was making its presence know, his optics bleeding to a magenta color and lips curled up in a snarl.

Once the feed cut, Sunstreaker got to his feet and paced in tight circles, right hand gripping his left wrist. Suddenly, with a yell, he turned and punched the wall by the door, leaving a sizeable dent before he rushed out of the conference room.

“I got ‘im” Ironhide said as he followed the yellow twin from the room. Both he and Ratchet had taken responsibility for the twins when they were found on Cybertron all of those vorns ago and when one of them got into this state of mind, it was only he or Ratchet that could generally talk them down. 

“Ratchet, go with him, make sure Sunstreaker is alright.”

Ratchet nodded at Optimus and then left the room to follow in Sunstreaker and Ironhide’s wake. Now, only Jazz and Optimus were left.

“Give me the order boss bot and Raj and I will be out of here quick like.”

Optimus waved his hand at his TIC, while Jazz gave him a cocky smirk in return. As he walked out the door, he could hear Jazz giving Mirage his orders and to meet him at the entrance in 30 minutes, ready to go. He knew it would take Jazz and Mirage a good six hours to make it to the Nemesis and to start infiltration. He just hoped that Sideswipe would be safe in the meantime. 

******************************

“Sunny?”

Sunstreaker turned around from his perch high on the volcano at Ironhide’s voice. Both he and Ratchet were standing in the shadows waiting for permission to joint their charge out on the ledge. His optics were starting to turn back to his normal blue color while Ratchet noted some sparking coming from his hand that connected to the wall. Seeing Sunstreaker turn his head so he was watching the horizon once more, he took his permission and stepped out on the ledge and took the injured hand in his to start repairs.

“You know, Jazz and Mirage are getting ready to leave for the Nemesis. They’ll evaluate the situation and if they can get him out, they’ll do so. If not, we’ll go and make ole bucket head sorry he ever touched Sides.”

“Thanks Hide,” Sunstreaker replied quietly. “How’d you know I’d be up here?”

“Heh, you might not be as small as you once were but you always wanted to be up high when you needed to clear your head,” Ratchet said. “Just not as many places around here where you can do it.” 

Ratchet finished up repairs on his hands and then put his tools away while Ironhide came and sat down on Sunstreaker’s other side. 

“We’ll get him back, I promise ya.” Ironhide pulled Sunstreaker up against him so his helm could rest on his shoulder. “You just need ta be ready when we get the word.

*************************

Mirage and Jazz had pushed themselves to reach the Nemesis in record time. After infiltrating the ship, they discovered only a skeleton crew present. Making their way down to the detention area, they found it empty. 

“This ship is way too quiet,” Jazz said going over to the computer to hack into the system while Mirage covered him. 

“Any idea where they are?”

“Nada, computer not telling us much, did find some geothermal targets though. Let’s get these back to base and regroup. But first…..”

After downloading the needed information, Jazz pulled a virus chip out of subspace and inserted it into the mainframe. “That will be a nice ole surprise when they get back.”

Signaling Mirage he was ready to go, they snuck their way back out of the ship and back to land. Once they were several miles from the Nemesis, Jazz opened a channel back to the Ark.

“Any luck Jazz?”

“None boss bot, no sign of Megs or Siders. Got some information regarding potential raids, will be back as soon as we can with the information. Jazz out.”

Again, they made good time back to the Ark and went directly to the conference room where they expected to provide their findings. However, they weren’t expecting to see Prowl sitting at the table when they walked in.

“No offense Prowler but shouldn’t you still be in Med Bay?”

“I’m needed more here.” Prowl looked worn out but he refused to return to Med Bay when he could help analyze the information. “I’m quite capable of helping to review the information you were able to obtain.”

Mirage uploaded the file to Teletran while Prowl requested cross-referencing with different variables to try and determine where the Decepticons would strike next.

“Any sign of Sideswipe?”

The doors opened to admit Sunstreaker, Ironhide, and a currently very unhappy Ratchet. 

“Primus frag it Prowl, what part of do not leave this Med Bay do you not understand!” Ratchet grumbled as he pulled his med kit from subspace. Grabbing a bag of Energon and an IV line, he hooked the equipment up and then connected it to a port on Prowl’s arm, Prowl wincing as the needle was connected. “Serves you right for not following orders. Last thing we need is for you to crash right now!”

“I’m in no danger of crashing at this time Ratchet,” Prowl said as he continued to analyze the information being fed to him by Teletran. “However, once I have complete these analyses, I will remit myself to Med Bay for as long as you require.”

After about fifteen minutes of running numbers and scenarios, Prowl was able to narrow down the possible Decepticon locations to three. “Hound, please release SkySpies to the follow sets of coordinates and transmit their feeds to Conference Room Alpha.”

“Sure thing Prowl,” Hound replied overhead. Soon, there were three different feeds on the conference room vid screens. Sure enough, the missing Decepticons showed up on SkySpy 3. 

“The coordinates for this one are a location about 70 miles ENE of here. We can be there in an hour or less if we get the lead out.”

Optimus nodded at Ironhide and told him to get a strike team ready while Ratchet let them know he would joint them shortly, after he returned a wayward SIC to the Med Bay and to give Wheeljack strict orders to not let him leave. Soon, Optimus was joined by Sunstreaker, Ironhide, Ratchet, Jazz, Mirage, Hound, and Trailbreaker with Bumblebee and Cliffjumper monitoring comms and video feeds for them.

“Autobots, let’s roll out!”

**********************

Once they had arrived at the coordinates, they took cover in some outcroppings above the area where the Decepticons were tapping and processing Geothermal energy. All the while, Sunstreaker was sending comforting pulses through the bond, letting his twin know they were on their way and he would be safe soon.

“Sunstreaker, has Sideswipe been able to relay anything to you through the bond?”

“Not much Prime, other than the main operation is inside. It’s like a large cavern or something. He’s in the back.”

“Alright, everyone remember what they are to do?” Prime asked as he scanned the strike team. “Mirage, signal once you are in position, retrieve Sideswipe, and return here as quickly as possible. We will work on distracting the Decepticons. Wait for the signal before making your move.”

“How will I know when it is safe to move?” Mirage asked as he checked his rifle one last time before moving out.

“Oh, it’s a Jackie special!” Jazz replied, “you won’t miss it.”

“As long as it doesn’t bring the roof down on us.” Mirage engaged his cloaking device and silently crept his way down to the processing site. In his peripheral vision, he could see the other members of the team move to their positions. He could see the tenseness in Sunstreaker’s frame, he just hoped that his eagerness to rescue his brother didn’t end up complicating things in the end.

***************

“Production is currently at sixty percent my Lord; we should be topping eighty percent in one Earth day.”

“Well done Starscream, take what cubes have been filled and prepare them for transport back to the Nemesis.” Megatron looked over the production site with pride. “Soon we will be able to tap enough geothermal energy to give us enough Energon to leave this wretched planet to return to Cybertron and bring it under Decepticon control.”

Mirage snuck quietly around the equipment, trying to keep as silent as possible while observing what was going on around him. He finally was able to make out Sideswipe along the back wall, bound, gagged, and huddled between some crates that must have been used to transport the parts to make this processing site. He slowly started to make his way over to Sideswipe but stopped when he saw Megatron turn and walk towards the captive twin.

“What say you little mech, would you like to return to Cybertron and be witness to the Decepticon revival?” He picked up Sideswipe by his scruff bar and Mirage was able to get a better view of what he was dealing with. His hands were cuffed in front of him with a chain that ran from the cuffs to an anchor on the floor. He knew that those cuffs had to be very painful considering his energy and he had to give credit to Sideswipe for remaining as composed as he was. Sideswipe glared back and shook his head at the tyrant. “Just think, you could remain as our little Decepticon pet. Or maybe we can have Shockwave reactivate that gladiator coding I know is still residing in your processor. Your twin still carries it; one should believe you do as well. I remember both of you were quite vicious when you were fighters in my rings. We could reprogram you into my own personal bodyguard.”

“Megatron, come out here and face me you fragging piece of slag!”

Sideswipe looked up at his brother’s yell echoing through the cavern. He knew Mirage would be coming for him, Sunny had told him though the bond. It wouldn’t be long now and he would be free.

“Well, maybe I’ll be able to return with a matching set of gladiators,” Megatron sneered as he dropped the youngling back onto the floor. “It appears as if your brother is not as smart as he likes to pretend he is.” He turned towards his soldiers, “shall we go welcome him. Come my loyal Decepticons, let’s go welcome our newest guest.”

As the Decepticons filed out of the cavern, Mirage quickly made his way over to Sideswipe. He reached out to grab Sideswipe by the shoulder, startling the youngling since his cloak was engaged.

“Let your brother know I’m here while I work on getting this chain released.”

Sideswipe nodded his head and his optics dimmed while he communicated through the bond with his brother. In the meantime, Mirage pierced one of Prow’s acid pellet rounds and dripped the acid on the chain anchor, watching as it sizzled through the links. Suddenly there was a loud explosion from outside of the cavern that caused the floors to shake and small rocks to fall from the ceiling. Sideswipe looked at him with large optics, not knowing what had happened outside.

“Wheeljack special my aft, that fool is going to get us all killed!” He tossed the pellet to the side while pulling a blaster out of subspace. “Hang on, I don’t know what we’ll get into once we get outside!”

Mirage grabbed Sideswipe and cradled him to him to his side, his cloak able to provide cover for both of them due to Sideswipe’s smaller stature. Once outside, they could see the other Autobots fighting the various Decepticons, Sunstreaker in a snarling frenzy attacking the Seekers that dared to take his brother. Soon, they were able to make it to the cliff edge where Mirage was able to safely deposit his charge into Ratchet’s arms. While Ratchet worked on removing the cuffs so he could take a better look at his crushed wrist, Mirage worked on the gag’s locking mechanism.

“Incoming Mechs!”

They looked below to see Jazz leap over Soundwave’s cassetticons and lob two grenades into the cavern with a laugh. Once he tossed his munitions, he transformed and drove away quickly, clearing the area before they both exploded causing the cavern ceiling to come down and crush the machinery located inside.

“Curse you Prime! Decepticons! Retreat!”

Megatron took to the sky while the rest of their forces followed suit. Unfortunately, he saw Ratchet, Mirage, and Sideswipe on the cliff top and took aim with his fusion cannon.

“Ratchet! Move!” Ironhide yelled.

The trio on the cliff top had just enough time to see the cannon start to glow before the shot was fired. Luckily for them, Trailbreaker was able to throw a force shield over them at the last minute, causing the blast to dissipate.

The Autobots continued to fire on the retreating Decepticons until they were out of range while Sunstreaker rushed up to the cliff top to check on his brother.

“Ahhhh! Ratchet, that hurts!”

He stopped to see Sideswipe trying to get his arm away from Ratchet who was trying to assess the damage to his wrist.

“Well if you would hold still you little pit spawn, it wouldn’t hurt so much!”

“Says the bot whose idea of TLC is a wrench to the head!”

“I’ll give you TLC you little hellion if you don’t sit still!”

“Sunny!”

Sunstreaker soon found himself with a lap full of trembling youngling. He hadn’t realized he had dropped to his knees while his brother and Ratchet were arguing.

“You ok?” he asked as he embraced his brother, mindful of his injured wrist.

“Yeah, I’m ok.” Sideswipes voice trembled as he spoke and he could feel the war of emotions coming through the spark bond at this relief of being rescued and reunited with his brother. 

The rest of the group surrounded the brothers, happy to see both safe and sound.

“Autobots, let’s go home.”

**********************

Sideswipe wasn’t too happy about having to ride back to the Ark in Ratchet’s alt mode and took particular delight in tormenting the med bot the whole way home by complaining about his driving. Sunstreaker could feel Sideswipe relaxing through the bond and soon, he and the others were laughing as the two continued their squabbles the whole way home. Currently, it was the night cycle and Sunstreaker was reclined on a med berth while Sideswipe was curled up on his lap fast asleep. He had already undergone surgery to repair his wrist and between the sedative to do his surgery, the pain meds being fed to him through the IV line, and his twin’s gentle ministrations had sent the red frontliner into a deep recharge which he most certainly needed.

“How’s he doing?” Ratchet asked as he came over to exam the repaired wrist and to make sure the bracing being used to support the joint while it healed wasn’t constricting any energon or neural lines.

“Fast asleep. I think Jazz could set off one of those bombs from earlier and he’d sleep through it right now.”

Ratchet continued examining the repairs but could tell Sunstreaker had something on his mind.

“What is it Sunny?”

He fidgeted on the berth, not really wanting to say what was on his mind. However, Ratchet could tell by the look in his eyes. “It’s just, I, well…”

“I know, I was afraid we’d lost him too. But I promise you, Wheeljack and I are working as fast as possible to get his body repaired.”

“You know, he does sort of grow on you like this,” Sunstreaker said as he adjusted his arms, allowing his brother to relax more into his embrace.

“Well, Sides always was a snuggler, still is a guess,” Ratchet laughed. He pulled a cube from his subspace and sat it on the table beside Sunstreaker. “Drink this and then get some recharge yourself. You’re running on fumes too.”

Sunstreaker downed the cube in a few gulps while Ratchet made a few notes on Sideswipe’s chart. 

“No funny stuff tonight, I don’t want to come in here tomorrow morning and find my tools glued to the ceiling.”

“I promise Ratch.”

“Alright, I’ll be in the office if you need me.” Ratchet turned to go check on Prowl and Tracks while Sunstreaker powered down into recharge. Before going into his office, he grabbed a blanket from one of the cabinets and covered both twins up with it and pulled up the safety rails on the bed. Once satisfied they were comfortable, he dimmed the over berth light and quietly made his way back to his office, relieved that both his pit spawns were home and safe.


	8. Making Amends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the days after the rescue, not all is well on the Ark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are a some references to my other story but don't need to read one to understand the other.

Ratchet released Sideswipe from medical the day after the rescue mission and Sunstreaker was given a couple of days off duty to make sure his brother was taking care of himself. The first day wasn’t so bad, other than Sideswipe was cranky due to being tired from his ordeal and from his body working hard to heal itself. They spent most of the day in their room, curled up on the couch watching TV. However, Sunstreaker soon had to return to duty but thankfully, most of his shifts were scheduled to be on or near the Ark so he was able to check on his brother frequently. 

However, things weren’t back to normal. Other than his visits with Ratchet or the rare trip to the Rec Room with Sunny after shift, Sideswipe tended to stay in their room and rarely responded when someone pinged for entrance. A couple of times, Ratchet had stopped by to check on him and had to use his override codes to get in when Sideswipe didn’t open the door. Most of the time, he would be found curled up on Sunstreaker’s berth, buried under a mound of pillows and blankets. He was quiet, he was subdued, he was listless, in other words, he wasn’t Sideswipe. 

After a particularly long shift, Sunstreaker drug his brother down to the Rec Room to get some socialization in and partake on some of the games that were going on that night. Sideswipe stayed close to his brother, smiled when the situation called for it, and even made a few comments. However, he wasn’t his normal gregarious self. Finally, the twins decided to grab a place on the couch and watch the movie that was playing. Before long, Sunstreaker found himself dozing off with his brother sound asleep over his spark and absent-mindedly running his hand back and forth along Sideswipe’s helm and back.

“Still no change?”

Sunstreaker looked up to see Ratchet had walked across the room to check on the resident hellions.

“No, still quiet. I almost had to drag him out of our room tonight,” Sunstreaker replies as he repositioned himself so Ratchet could get a better look and to free up the wrist that was splinted from where it had gotten caught during recharge. “He’s really worrying me. All I feel from the bond is anxiety but that’s not him. Mischievousness, happiness, frag, even annoyance I’m used to. This though, this feeling is just tearing me apart. He’s scared at how vulnerable he is but he won’t let me do anything to help him.”

Ratchet couldn’t say anything to this as he knew Sunstreaker was right. Sideswipe was taken right under their noses and he had no way to fight back as he normally would. While fighting as a youngling was nothing new to him, it had been vorns since he had been placed in that situation. In his prior frame, not only did he still have his friends and his twin to help watch his back, he had his weapons and size he could use to defend himself. With time, Ratchet was sure some of his old fighting awareness would return to him but to expect him to be able to bring it up at a moment’s notice and during a stressful situation would be difficult to do. However, it was seeing Sideswipe essentially shut his brother out when he just wanted to help that was the worst part. Sure, both twins could be stubborn when it came to accepting help but they had never shut the other out before. The only reason Sunstreaker had an inkling of what was going on was because due to Sideswipe’s diminished size and strength, he wasn’t as able to build effective walls to block his brother from feeling his emotions. 

“You know, I think part of the problem is that Sides sees you as an older brother right now and yes I know that the time difference is minimal but right now, you’re not exactly the same size.”

Bluestreak had come over and sat down beside Sunstreaker after overhearing the conversation between he and Ratchet. 

“Then if anything, he should know he could come to me for anything!” Sunstreaker returned.

“Well, you know that and common sense would tell someone that. However, this is Sides we’re talking about.”

“Heh, common sense isn’t exactly something he’s known for,” Ratchet muttered.

‘His spark is telling him you’re twins,” Bluestreak started as Sunstreaker let out a large exvent, “but his processor is telling him differently from the data he’s taking in. I know when I was younger, I never wanted Prowl to see me when I was hurt. It made me feel, I don’t know, like I wasn’t worthy to be his younger brother.”

“But I’ve never treated Sides like that!”

“I know that Sunny and deep down, he knows that too but it’s something that’s hard for older siblings to understand. We youngers, we’re always subconsciously trying to prove ourselves to you. Probably why he’s so reckless on the battlefield, he’s showing off. It’s the same reason that I spend all of that time in the firing range. I know Prowl is proud of me no matter what. I just have a little piece of my processor that doesn’t want to accept it.”

Bluestreak sat back and saw the tiny smile on Sideswipe’s face as he continued to snuggle into his brother’s chest. He had always subconsciously sought out the comfort of others when he was troubled, he was just a lot smaller and more adorable when he did it now.

“So what do I do? This can’t keep going on.”

“Ratchet, how has he been doing? I mean, everything’s stable and what not?”

“Yes, he’s healing fine physically,” Ratchet replied. “Why, what do you have in mind?”

“Well, Prowl is pulling an overnight shift so I have our quarters to myself. What if I take Sides for the night and have a, you know, a younger brother to younger brother talk with him?"

Sunstreaker looked at Bluestreak and then to Ratchet who just shrugged his shoulders. “I’ll need to see him in the morning to check his levels and see how he’s healing. Other than that, I don’t see the harm in trying.”

Sunstreaker sat quietly for a moment, continuing to stroke his brother’s back as he sat, face furrowed in thought. 

“Alright, at this point, I’m willing to try anything.” Sunstreaker said as he turned towards Bluestreak. “But if….”

“Don’t worry,” Bluestreak said as he put a hand on Sunstreaker’s shoulder, “I know where to comm you if I need you. Mind bringing him down in about thirty minutes or so? Gives me enough time to get things put away and situated for the night.”

Sunstreaker nodded his approval and watched as Bluestreak walked out of the Rec Room. He turned his attention back to his brother and then to Ratchet.

“Am I doing the right thing?”

“It’s like you said Sunny, something’s got to give and I’m all out of options. Blue’s a good kid and I know he has Sides’s best interests at spark. You three were always thick as thieves since you were younglings. It doesn’t hurt to let him try.”

Sunstreaker stood with some help from Ratchet and then turned to face him,

“Thanks Ratch, for always being there for us.”

*******************************

Bluestreak turned to the door when he heard the entry ping and sent a response for it to open. Sunstreaker entered, carrying his brother wrapped in a large fuzzy blanket and something peeking out.

“Um, is that?”

“Yeah don’t ask, I’ve given up trying to figure him out.”

Sunstreaker placed his brother on the berth and then rearranged the blankets around him. Sideswipe grumbled for a few moments and then settled back into recharge, giant stuffed dog tucked in as well. You see, not too long ago, Jazz was speaking with Spike and Sparkplug about something humans did called a White Elephant party. The participants went out and bought stuff that had little purpose to the attendees and then do random drawings to see who received what and laugh at the end results. Well, during the Autobot version, Sideswipe had ended up with a giant seven-foot stuffed dog. For the first few days, the dog just hung around their quarters, sometimes being found on his berth, other times on the couch, it was even used as a pillow when watching videos on the floor. However, one day, Sunstreaker woke from recharge to find that Sideswipe had curled up with it sometime during the night and since then, the toy often found its way into bed before shutting down for the night. 

“Alright, comm me if you have any problems and I’ll be right here.”

“Don’t worry Sunny, we’ll be just fine.”

Sunstreaker started walking towards the door but turned as the door opened. Letting out a sigh, he sent a pulse of love through the bond and cracked a small smile when he saw his brother relax even more in response. Then with a nod of his head, he turned and walked out of the room. Making sure Sideswipe was comfortable and placing his injured wrist on a pillow, Bluestreak made his way over to his berth and flipped the TV on low while he waited for Sideswipe to wake up. 

Less than an hour after Sunstreaker left, Bluestreak heard some rustling over on Prowl’s berth and saw Sideswipe’s optics slowly light up. 

“Huh. What the? Blue?”

“Hey Sides, how are you feeling? Arm hurting at all? Ratchet sent a message that he can bring a pain chip if you need one?”

Sideswipe just shook his head and sat up with the blanket curled around him, not making eye contact. “Where’s Sunny?” he mumbled.

“Oh, he’s back in your room. Thought maybe you and I could have a little talk. You know, he’s worried about you.” Sideswipe just shrugged his shoulders and sat still when Bluestreak walked over and took a seat next to him on the berth. “So what’s going on?”

Sideswipe fidgeted, still not making eye contact and picking at his blanket. “Nothing.”

“Uh-huh”

“What, I’m fine. We’re all fine!” Sideswipe leaned back against the wall with a huff, his engine growling. “So what’s the big deal!”

“You know, its ok to be scared sometimes.” Bluestreak looked across the room. “I know I still get scared whenever those alarms go off. Scared Prowl will get hurt. Scared I’ll do something that will get Prowl hurt.”

Sideswipe stiffened but kept silent. Bluestreak noticed that the hand picking at his blanket had fallen still. He decided to push on. 

“Scared I’ll never live up to Prowl’s expectations.”

He saw a small tremor pass through Sideswipe’s frame before he slumped back down. Suddenly there was a quiet murmur but Bluestreak wasn’t able to pick up what he said.

“What was that Sides?”

“I’m nothing but a burden to Sunny?”

“Why’s that?”

“Look at me!” Sideswipe jumped to his feet, arms spread wide. “He was always watching my back when we were the same size but at least I could hold my own. I can’t even take down a stupid floor bot like this!”

Bluestreak sat up on his knees and then turned towards Sideswipe, gripping both shoulders as he looked him in the optics.

“Look Sides, you went through a pretty traumatic thing with the reformat. That’s shocking enough to your processor. However, don’t ever think you’re a burden to your brother or to anyone.” Sideswipe opened his mouth to retort but Bluestreak continued on. “I remember a youngling who took off with his brother through Praxus when they saw a friend in need. I remember a youngling that was brave enough to accept a bunch of strangers after being saved from the rings. And I remember a youngling who took on mechs far larger than himself and saved my brother from the Decepticons. As for what happened, they took us off guard and from what I was told, you refused to give up even when Megatron was gloating to us on the vid screen. Don’t ever doubt yourself Sides. Sunny loves you no matter what and you could be three times his size but he’ll always still worry and fuss over you. It’s what older brothers do.”

Slowly he could see the walls start breaking down as Sideswipe processed everything he had said. Suddenly, he leaned forward, wrapping his arms around Bluestreak’s neck and started to cry. Eventually, Sideswipe’s systems, used to running on a state of alert when he wasn’t around his brother, started to catch up with him and he started to slump down on the berth. Rearranging the blankets, Bluestreak helped him lie down and get comfortable when Sideswipe reached out and grabbed his hand. 

“Don’t worry Sides, not going anywhere.”

Sideswipe smiled up at him and with a sigh, fell into recharge. Shortly thereafter he received a message from Sunstreaker.

“Thanks Blue.”

**************************

Morning came too soon and Bluestreak found that sometime during the night, he had knelt on the floor beside the berth and fell into recharge, still holding Sideswipe’s hand. He felt the youngling start to move around and figured he’d better send a message to Ratchet that they would be down within the hour for Side’s check-up. Feeling the pressure loosen up on his hand, he sat up and stretched out his doorwings while Sideswipe sat up on the berth and rubbed his optics with his good hand. Bracing a hand on the floor to help push him up, Bluestreak noticed something sticking out from underneath the berth. Sometime during the night, the giant stuffed dog had been knocked to the floor and was now partially hidden. He picked up the toy and turned towards Sideswipe. Optics widening, he reached out for the dog and shoved it under the blankets with a glare and growling engine.

“Yeah Sides, never saw a thing.”


	9. Road Trip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A mini-vacation from the Ark (and angst)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> /blah/ = bond speak

Sunstreaker had been quietly sketching for the past couple of hours when there was a knock on the door to the hab-suite he shared with his twin. Looking over to the couch where Sideswipe still slept, he sat his materials down before going over to see who was there. Jazz stood outside with a large grin on his face, trying to appear innocent.

“Um, yeah, what do you need Jazz?”

Still keeping up the grin, he quickly pulled a large basket and blanket from subspace and held them up in front of him.

“We’re going on a road trip, grab the half-pint and let’s skedaddle for a bit.”

Turning back into the room, Sunstreaker was torn between waking Sideswipe up and telling Jazz another time and letting him sleep. However, he knew if Sideswipe found out that he had a chance to leave the Ark (which was still not allowed in almost all situations), he would never hear the end of it.

“Hold on a second, need to get him up,” Sunstreaker replied as he turned back into the room. 

“How is he still sleeping? It’s almost mid-morning!”

“Stayed up late last night to watch something on TV, must have fallen asleep on the couch.”

Walking over to the couch, Sunstreaker prodded the mound of blankets. “Time to get up, you’ve laid around long enough.”

Jazz walked over in time to hear from grumbled mutterings from under the blanket while the inhabitant shifted around into a new position. Seeing as this wasn’t going to work, Sunstreaker straightened to his full height, crossed his arms over his chest, and decided to try the prodding the bond.

/Time to wake up oh dear brother of mine/

Again, there was some shifting from underneath the blankets. Soon, an arm appeared from underneath the mass and promptly flipped the speaker off before flopping down.

“Ha!” Jazz barked a laugh. “He’s worse than Prowler when e’s gotten a good recharge in!”

Sunstreaker turned quickly towards Jazz, opened his mouth to say something, and then turned back around.

“I seriously don’t want to know how you know that,” he muttered as he poked the pile of blankets again. “Look Sides, Jazz is willing to chaperone a trip from the Ark if you get your aft out of bed. Otherwise, I don’t want to hear any bitching later about being cooped up.”

Blankets and pillows flew everywhere as Sideswipe suddenly sat up and was fully alert. “Get me the frag out of here!” he exclaimed as he jumped off the couch and ran out the door.  


“Bet Prowl doesn’t do that.”

“Nah he don’t mech. Let’s go meet Blue and get outta here!”

***********************

There was a nice secluded lake a little over an hour’s drive from the Ark and Bluestreak thought Sideswipe might enjoy a little mini-vacation to the quiet area. Knowing that Ratchet would never consent to Sideswipe going more than 20 feet away from the Ark without an officer accompanying him, he discussed his plan with Jazz who though they should make a day out of it. Gathering some cubes from the Rec Room and some other goodies, he packed up some baskets and decided to see why humans thought picnics were so great. Sideswipe rode inside his brother while the others carried the supplies they figured they would need for the day trip. 

“Hound and Trailbreaker talk about this place a lot and it seemed like it would be a nice area for Sideswipe to come to and there not being any problems. At least I hope there aren’t any problems because that would be bad and Ratchet would get mad…..”

Sideswipe had tuned Bluestreak out as they turned off the road onto the path that Hound said would take them towards the lake. Finally, the tree line broke open onto a crystal clear lake that was nestled in a valley. There were some cliffs around the one edge while the other sides had some flatter areas where one could just sit and enjoy the view.

“Wow! This is awesome!” Sideswipe exclaimed as he jumped out of his brother’s alt mode and dashed towards the lake’s edge. He waded into the shallows before flopping with a laugh onto his back and just floated for a while. 

While Bluestreak set their supplies out onto a nearby patch of grass, Sunstreaker walked closer to the lake edge so he would keep a better eye on his brother while Jazz explored their surroundings. 

“What, not jumping in?” Bluestreak lightly elbowed Sunstreaker as they stood at the lake’s edge watching Sideswipe as he played in the cool water.

“Pfeh, there are fish in there,” Sunstreaker grunted in response. “Not swimming with any fish.”

“Come on Sunny, it’s not like they’re going to hurt your finish,” Sideswipe goaded as he trudged towards the shore. Once on land, he loosened his plating to have water gush from where it had been trapped between the plating and his protoform, causing him to start laughing.

“And that is reason number two why I’m not getting in.”

Suddenly there was a loud yell coming from over by the cliffs. The trio turned towards the sound to see Jazz take a running leap from what appeared to be a forty-foot cliff, yelling “cannonball” the entire way down. He hit the water with a large splash, sending a spray of water about fifteen feet in the air and sending small waves rippling around the shore line. He surfaced with a cackle and started swimming towards shore.

“Oh, I am so doing that!” Sideswipe started to take off towards the cliff Jazz had jumped from but was stopped by his brother grabbing him around the waist and lifting him off the ground.

“Yeah, no you’re not,” Sunstreaker chided a pouting youngling. “I’m not explaining to Ratchet why he needs to reset all of the joints on your body or repair that brace holding your wrist together because you decided to pull a Jazz and jump off a cliff.”

“You’re no fun!”

“But never said you couldn’t do this!”

And with a heave, he tossed his little brother out into the lake where he landed with a splash.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing. Sunstreaker had done multiple rough sketches he hoped to complete once they returned to the Ark and he had access to more of his supplies. There were drawings of Jazz doing more cannonballs from the cliff, Sideswipe playing in the water, and Bluestreak checking out the different plants and rock formations around the lake. He had also done some landscapes showing the scenery, including how the lake reflected their surroundings. Currently, he was working on a sketch of Bluestreak and Sideswipe building sandcastles on the shore while Jazz lounged beside them, sipping from a cube. However, the sun was starting to set lower onto the horizon and it was soon time to be heading back home. While the others started to pack up their things, Jazz sent a message back to the Ark letting them know they were getting ready to head out and should be back soon. Since his smaller frame had a harder time regulating temperatures, and the fact that Sunny refused to let Sideswipe sit inside him after swimming all day in “organics”, Sideswipe took one of the picnic blankets and wrapped himself up in it before curling up in his brother’s passenger seat. 

“Hey Sunny?”

“Yeah Sides.”

Sideswipe looked out the rear window as the lake disappeared into the distance.  
“I’m glad we came.”

“Me too”

*********************

Traffic was light on the drive back towards the Ark and they arrived just as night began to fall. While Jazz and Bluestreak transformed at the entrance, they noticed that Sunstreaker had remained in vehicle mode.

“Got a problem there Sunny?” Jazz asked as he handed his supplies to Bluestreak.

He popped open his passenger door so they could see Sideswipe curled up in the seat fast asleep. With a chuckle, Jazz reached in to undo the seatbelt holding Sideswipe’s frame in place and then gently lifted him from the seat so his brother could transform.

“I think we wore the tyke out,” Jazz chuckled as he handed the youngling over to Sunstreaker where he started to nestle into his side and chest. 

“Think I’m going to give him a quick rinse in the shower and get him to bed,” Sunstreaker replied quietly as he rubbed his hand up and down his brother’s back. 

“I’ll go ahead and make sure all of this gets cleaned and put away,” Bluestreak said as he lifted the baskets and their contents.

“And I’ll make sure to let ole Ratch know we’re back safe and sound.”

The trio turned to walk into the Ark, giving a wave towards Red Alert and the security cameras before heading off to their destinations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had intended for this go to one way but the muse wanted it to go this way. Then again, muse is under the influence of Mucinex and Nyquil so.....


	10. Thanksgiving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Autobots decide to celebrate Thanksgiving. With football. And Seekers.

Since the Autobots were going to be on Earth for a while, Optimus wanted them to start learning about and participating in some of the celebrations that their human friends participated in. Bumblebee mentioned a conversation with Spike the other day regarding Thanksgiving. Spike had told him about how his extended family came together to have a large dinner and participate in the yearly Witwicky football match before eating. While the copious amounts of food held no appeal, unlike humans, too much energon could lead to toxicity if their pumps couldn’t process the fuel in a timely manner, the officers did feel that maybe making some of the delicacies and treats that they generally couldn’t enjoy since the start of the war would be a nice touch. That, and the concept of a family football game was intriguing. Well, to everyone except Ratchet who felt he was going to be doing nothing but repairs after all was said and done and to Sideswipe who was barred from even participating before he could even open his mouth to ask. 

Because Spike and Sparkplug were unable to make it on the actual holiday, the Autobots decided to hold the festivities over the weekend so their human friends would be able to come by and to allow ample time to prepare the treats and to organize the football teams. It was determined that Optimus would captain one team and Ironhide the other and the “draft” was held earlier in the week to organize teams and permit some practice time when schedules permitted. Due to recent doorwing repairs, Prowl decided to sit the game out but was voted in as the “commissioner” who had the responsibilities to set up the practice schedules, make sure the playing field (which was just the open field outside of the Ark) was ready for game day, and to make sure all rules were followed. 

Thanksgiving came and went with the Rec Room filled with bots sharing recipes and attempting to recreate some of their favorite treats from Cybertron with ingredients they could find on Earth (or close substitutes). Some of the braver bots decided to see what the fuss was over Black Friday and came back with tales of human exploits that made of the hair-brained plans Megatron came up with look like sparkling play. 

Early the next morning, Prowl went out to the playing field to make sure the hash marks had been painted correctly while the teams assembled on the opposite ends to go over game plans, Spike and Sparkplug agreed to provide color commentary while Ratchet sat off to the side, grabbing onto Sideswipe’s arm when he tried to con his way onto the field as the ball boy and muttering about old fools (namely Ironhide) who was going to regret going up against some of these young guns. Finally, Prowl blew the whistle and the game began. 

Ironhide’s team had possession of the ball and Sunstreaker, who had declared himself the quarterback because he wasn’t having his finished ruined, actually had good aim when it came to passing the ball. Most of the Autobots had a good laugh when Sparkplug noted this must be because of being raised by Ratchet and learning from the master of the flying wrench. However, finish be damned when he was sacked several times by a mini-bot coalition. Which led to catcalls by his twin. Which led to rude gestures from the quarterback to the stands. Which led to Ratchet grabbing Sideswipe by the scruff bar before he could run out on the field to try and tackle his twin himself. 

Controversy erupted in the second quarter when Optimus’s team scored but was due to Mirage catching the ball and then engaging his cloak so the defense was unable to locate him until he was near the end zone. After hearing the arguments both for and against the use of special skills and gifts, Prowl ruled against their use and the touchdown was called back. This made Ironhide happy until he realized a good chunk of his plays relied on Jazz’s stealth skills and Hound’s holograms, so he ended up throwing his playbook away. 

Shortly before halftime, the famous Oregon drizzle began which made the playing field somewhat muddy, which led to complaints by both Sunstreaker and Tracks to postpone the game. Both were overruled because mud didn’t stop football games and there was no lightning in the area. Which led to more catcalls by Sideswipe. Which earned him rude gestures from both his twin and Tracks. Which led to Ratchet transforming and locking Sideswipe inside his alt-mode before he ran onto the field to take both of them on. 

After the Wheeljack Half-time show (which shockingly didn’t involve blowing up the field, or blowing up anything when one thought about it), the second half started with Optimus’s team leading by a touchdown. This time, the defensive lines were the stars of the show, preventing any scores until there was five minutes left in the game when Sunstreaker was finally able to punch through for a score. 

Unfortunately, unbeknownst to the Autobots, the lead trine was in the area doing some scouting when they saw their enemies not even paying attention to their surroundings, let alone an enemy this close to their base. Seeing a perfect opportunity, Starscream ordered his trine to attack, leading them in formation for a strafing run. Prowl quickly transformed so Spike and Sparkplug could climb inside his alt-mode and followed Ratchet back towards the entrance of the Ark with their precious cargo. The Autobots were having a hard time fending off the trine since they were in an open field with limited places to hide or shelter so they could fire back. Plus, with the trine keeping themselves in the air, they were at a distinct disadvantage on the ground. 

Suddenly, Sideswipe saw something land about a hundred feet away in the shrubbery and took off towards it, Ratchet yelling at him in the background. He reached into the overgrowth and grabbed his prize only to see an angry Ratchet coming up behind him. 

“I’m going to weld you to the wall if you don’t get back over there right now young bot!”

“But Ratch, I got an idea but I need to get over to Wheeljack’s party supplies!”

Knowing he had lost this battle due to the dire straits of his comrades and the determined look on Sideswipe’s face, Ratchet quickly transformed, let Sideswipe jump inside, and took off towards where Wheeljack was storing his pyrotechnics that were used for the halftime show. Quickly rummaging through the remnants, Sideswipe found what he needed, attaching the flash bomb to the “rescued” football and handing it to Ratchet.

“Why are you giving this contraption to me!”

“You’re the one with the mad wrench throwing skills. Besides, it’s not like I’m going to throw it high enough!”

Ratchet quirked an eyebrow at the youngling. Had to admit, it was pretty damn creative. Stupid, but creative. 

“Hey Warpy, INCOMING!” Ratchet yelled as he lit the fuse and then quickly launched the ball into the air.

Hearing someone call his name, Skywarp turned only to see a Cybertronian sized football flying his way. Catching it with a cackle, he warped over to where Thundercracker was firing towards Ironhide while Starscream continued with his strafing runs. 

“Hey TC, lookee here!” Skywarp held the ball out towards his trine mate.

“You idiot, that’s got a bomb on it!”

Panicked, Skywarp lobbed the ball straight up into the air where it managed to explode just as Starscream was zipping by to get ready for another run. The bright light and loud sound caused the Decepticon SIC to become disoriented and forced him into his root mode. Blinded, he was unable to see where he was going, which caused him to run into his trine mates. With the lull in the firing, the Autobots were finally able to go on the offensive, returning fire and causing the trine to ultimately retreat.

Several hours later, the Autobots were gathered in the Rec Room partaking on the different treats and Energon blends that had been created for their “Thanksgiving dinner”. While the game ended in a tie, due to the destruction of the field during the fighting and the loss of the football (lamented by Jazz as one brave fragger when he had a little too much high-grade), there was much to be thankful for as no one had been seriously injured, either during the game or during the fight. 

Sideswipe was curled up on the sofa next to his twin, watching college games on the vid screen and chewing on the Energon candies.

“So, Sunny?”

“What half-pint?”

“Can we do this again next weekend?!?!”

"Hell no."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I thought, hey, it would be fun to do Autobots and holidays. Thanksgiving was kind of hard but have some ideas for Christmas and New Year's :)


	11. The No Good Week

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will the Autobots finally get some good news? Will Optimus ever get his expresso?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slinks in, leaves chapter, slinks back out

Optimus was really hoping for a good meeting this morning. Things were finally quieting down after a recent Decepticon surge and he would have rather stayed in his room to catch up on some much needed recharge. As he nursed his morning ration, he wondered if there was a way to increase the potency, not like high grade but like the human drink expresso. He now had a good idea of what Sparkplug meant when he said he hadn’t had his coffee yet. 

Each department head presented what information they had regarding the increase in activity while Ratchet provided an update on the medical stores and who was on limited duties as they recovered from injuries. Finally, it was time to move on more generalized business. First on the agenda was how things were proceeding with Sideswipe’s repairs.

“Well, I’ve got good news and some bad news,” Wheeljack said as he scratched his helm in an awkward manner. 

Suppressing a groan, Optimus gestured for him to continue. “The good news first then Wheeljack.”

“Whelp, good news is, the external repairs to Sideswipe’s body are completed.”

“Then wha’s the bad news?” Jazz asked from across the table.

“Well, there is this compound all adult mechs circulate in their bodies, beta-251. Well, in Sideswipe’s case, his supply was pretty much destroyed when he was injured and I wasn’t able to synthesize a suitable amount from the remnants that remained. They were just too damaged by the radiation from the blast. I’ve even tried using some of my supply to try and synthesize enough for him to get started with but the result is just too unstable."

“So what does that mean?”

“What that means, Optimus,” Ratchet explained, “is that even if we transfer Sideswipe’s spark into his adult form, he would have little to no control over it. Beta-251 not only helps a Cybertronian control their T-cog and subspace pockets, it also helps us regulate our motor relays and sensory arrays. Without a sufficient amount, Sideswipe would, as the humans say, be flopping around like a fish out of water.”

“Have you found any alternative?”

“Nada. Sideswipe does appear to be starting to generate some of his own, which is normal for a youngling and allows them to utilize the additional compound that is worked into their final upgrade. However, his levels are way too low to support a frame that big, especially without the additional supplementation.” Wheeljack drummed his fingers on the table, “I’ve tried to see if any of Earth’s minerals or elements are compatible but no luck so far.”

“So you are implying that Sideswipe will need to remain in his youngling form until he either generates enough of this, beta-251 or we find a suitable substitute?” When Wheeljack nodded his head, Prowl continued, “Understandably, Sunstreaker is hesitant to be far from the Ark with Sideswipe in his current form. We are lucky that Megatron has yet to take advantage of this.”

While there was some general murmuring around the table, Prowl decided to reveal some information he had recently received.

“Last night I received a communication while I was on monitor duty from Red Alert,” Prowl said as heads snapped to attention. “Apparently he and a small band of Autobots fled Cybertron not too long after we left on the Ark to continue the mission when we were presumed lost. While I am not aware of the full roster on board, I know he said that Perceptor was with them. He is hoping to arrive within the next 72 hours to the Ark. We will need to be on our guard in case the Decepticons try to interfere with their arrival.”

“And with Percy on board,” Wheeljack exclaimed, “we might be able to try and figure out a solution to our Sideswipe problem!”

The rest of the meeting was spent preparing for their new arrivals regarding hab suites and in clearing some space in the lab to allow for a larger area where Perceptor, Wheeljack, and Ratchet could work in trying to synthesize the compounds needed in order to return Sideswipe his normal frame. By the time the meeting adjourned, the gathered Autobots were hoping they were finally going to see the light and the end of their dismal tunnel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still working on my stories, Real Life just doesn't like to play nice sometimes.......
> 
> Anyways, I honestly can't remember how all of the characters showed up starting in season 2. I kinda remember it was never really explained. Anyways, my story, my universe and in my universe, they were cruising around in an Ark 2 trying to find sources of Energon :)


	12. We Are Not Entertained

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New Arrivals and New Problems

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm using the family connections I have in my other story, where Prowl and Bluestreak are siblings and Smokescreen in the cousin.  
> Because it's my world and I can do what I want. Muwahahahahahahaha

Sitting from his perch watching the occurrences below, Bluestreak still had problems accepting how things had changed in the past couple of weeks. The other Autobots had finally arrived and were quite shocked at the current status of their Earth-bound comrades. Wheeljack and Ratchet were overjoyed at seeing Perceptor and had been working hard in the labs and med bay trying to figure out a solution to the beta-251 problem. Red Alert, seeing Sideswipe’s current appearance, glitched as his programming regarding closing all security gaps in order to protect a youngling fought with the information that said youngling was the bane of his existence. Poor Inferno was at a loss in trying to deal with the situation and decided to join Ironhide for a drink. Blaster, chill personality that he was, took everything in stride. However, it was his cousin, Smokescreen, that had the most amusing reaction and the quickest punishment for said reaction. Upon learning that the youngling was indeed Sideswipe and the reasons behind his current form, he broke out into a fit of laughter that continued for most of the day. However, he soon learned that youngling Sideswipe could maneuver through the air vents on the Ark when he woke up the next day to discover his paint scheme involved a nice glittery pink and purple design.  


Now things were pretty much going in stride, other than occasional fits by Red Alert when Sideswipe would grin at him juuuuuusst right (“he’s planning something, I know it!”). However, Prowl had noted after a recent skirmish with the Decepticons, that they weren’t functioning as well as they normally do in battle situations. To help rectify this and help the new arrivals meld better into the team dynamics of the original Ark crew, he determined a game resembling Earth’s “Capture the Flag” would be the best solution. He and Optimus would observe with Ratchet while Jazz and Ironhide would each captain a team. Smokescreen was Jazz’s tactician while Trailbreaker would work with Ironhide. The rest of the crew was split up amongst the two teams and given guidelines regarding “their territory” and rules/guidelines on what they could/could not do in order to capture the other team’s flag. Bluestreak wasn’t assigned to a team, instead he was given the duty to record the games from above since he typically spent battles perched up high in his sniper’s nest.  


So far things had gone well as both teams were evenly matched and while there were some close calls regarding someone grabbing the opposing team’s flag, last minute teamwork resulted in them being driven off and both sides pulling back to their defenses to plot their next attack. He wanted to shift position some, partly to get a better angle of the battlefield and partly because he was starting to get some kinks in his cabling from staying in his current position too long. However, he didn’t dare move too much as there was currently a red and white youngling curled up on his back in between his doorwings taking a nap. He had to admit, Sideswipe had the right idea in taking advantage of the warm weather and relaxed atmosphere. Might as well enjoy it while they could and he turned his attention back to the “battlefield” to see what plans the teams had come up with next.  


********************  


Ironhide wasn’t sure where it all went wrong. Or even how. All he knew was that one of his younglings (for the twins would always be his younglings, no matter how old they were) had finally sunk into a recharge that wasn’t sedative induced while the other was on a nearby berth, Ratchet and Perceptor currently going through his coding with a fine-toothed comb. They apparently were too relaxed from their game and failed to notice that a party of Decepticons were nearby. A few potshots from seekers overhead caused momentary disarray before Prowl was able to corral everyone into a basic defensive position. Bluestreak was given orders to take Sideswipe and get to safety. While not happy about abandoning the field, Bluestreak complied and was able to convince the reluctant youngling to get inside his alt mode so they could get away. He was going as fast as he could down the hill they were on when two sports cars came flying up the road towards him before shooting by so they could turn around to chase him. After nearly being run off the road several times, Bluestreak spied an outcropping of rocks ahead. Gunning his engine as hard as he could, he sped ahead of his two pursuers and as soon as Sideswipe had jumped outside, he transformed while pulling his rifle out of subspace, lining up his shot to take both Decepticons out. So focused on the targets in front of him, he had only a moments time to curl himself around Sideswipe before being knocked off the hillside by a large black truck that came at him from the side.  


Meanwhile, back at the main battle, the Autobots had no idea of the drama going on behind them. Ironhide had picked up on some comm chatter from Mirage and Smokescreen, who had been sent as backup for Bluestreak indicating they could use some assistance as they had run into the Stunticons and that there was no sign of Bluestreak or Sideswipe. He could hear Prowl in the background trying to redirect the troops when Smokescreen broke in yelling for medical evac ASAP and that Sunstreaker was out of his processor. Getting a nod from Optimus, Ironhide transformed and took off towards the coordinates that Smokescreen was pinging to whomever was in the vicinity. He knew that when Sunstreaker got himself into a rage, there were few who could talk him down. He wasn’t prepared for what he saw when he arrived. The fighting was going on about 100 feet down from the road. Bluestreak was unconscious, missing one doorwing and the other was severely dislocated, in addition to multiple torn cables and broken support struts that had occurred as he attempted to protect Sideswipe from the fall down the hill. The red youngling was currently yelling at his brother, one arm hanging limply at his side, one leg at an awkward angle behind him, and multiple lacerations over various areas of his body. Mirage currently had his hands full with the struggling youngling while Smokescreen attempted to patch and pinch off what injuries he could on his cousin. Sunstreaker, however, was in full berserker mode, something that Ironhide hasn’t seen since the yellow twin was a youngling and took on Megatron when he felt the bond with his brother disappear after he was injured. The rest of the Stunticons were holding back as Motormaster took on the psychotic twin, both sustaining injuries but neither willing, or able, to back down. After sending a message for Ratchet and the others to get the lead out, he jumped into the fray, hoping to distract Sunstreaker enough that he would engage him and that Motormaster would do the intelligent thing and retreat. Fortunately, backup arrived shortly after, giving the Stunticons no option but to retreat. However, Sunstreaker was not backing down. He would make a move or two at Ironhide, enough to get him off balance before trying to go at the Decepticons again. As much as he tried, Ironhide just couldn’t reason with the yellow twin. Those magenta eyes would focus on him for a moment before he tried once more to get at the black truck-former. Even after Megatron had called for retreat and Optimus arrived to help, they still had their hands full. Thankfully, Sunstreaker was so far into his berserker mode that he didn’t think to transform to chase after the retreating Decepticons. It finally took a couple of well placed EMP blasts from Ratchet to take the raging twin down and he quickly accessed his med panel to put him into stasis.  


While Ratchet and his team worked in the med bay, the officers met with Mirage and Smokescreen, who had minor injuries and were stable to enough to wait for more intensive treatment, to find out what had happened to put Sunstreaker in such a frenzied state. They reported that when they initially arrived at Bluestreak’s last known coordinates, they were engaged by three of the Stunticons. However, it didn’t take Smokescreen long to pick up the weak signal from his cousin down below. Making their way down to their injured comrades, they found that Motormaster and Wildrider were approaching the downed duo. Sideswipe’s panic over not getting any response from Bluestreak, his injuries, and seeing Motormaster coming towards them despite the best efforts of Mirage and Smokescreen must have been bleeding through in spade-fulls to his twin as it was only a few moments later that a large yellow flash came tearing down the hill and collided with Motormaster. Seeing Sunstreaker’s features, Smokescreen knew they were out of their league and started calling for help.

*******************  


It had taken several hours to stabilize Bluestreak. Thankfully, the blow to his helm didn’t cause any significant damage but he would have one pit of a helmache for several days. The other damage was repaired while Wheeljack was currently working in his lab to repair the damaged doorwing that was found about 40 feet from where he had landed. Both he and Sideswipe, who had suffered a dislocated left shoulder and broken right leg would be spending quite a bit of time on berth rest to allow the welds to set and the fractures to heal properly. Mirage, Smokescreen, and the others who had more minor injuries from the battle had already been tended to and were elsewhere in the Ark. While Optimus met with Jazz and Prowl over the recent developments, Ironhide had recused himself to the Med Bay where Sideswipe was having difficulties staying in recharge, despite medications, while Ratchet and Perceptor worked on his twin. Reclining on a nearby berth and allowing the red youngling to curl up against him, Ironhide was finally able to get Sideswipe to fall into recharge. As for Sunstreaker, only time would tell if Perceptor and Ratchet were successful in bringing the yellow twin back. He offlined his optics and initiated a light recharge. They had a long wait ahead of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it is taking so long to update both this story and my other one. I have some problems with my hands that can make it hard for me to type at times and it has decided to act up (which sucks doubly because I work at a computer all day long at my primary job). So I'll try and update as I can :)

**Author's Note:**

> Because my ADHD mind won't leave me alone....


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